Extra Curricular

Dance at TAB

Dance is a key part of our extra curricular offering at TAB. We take part in a number of events and were even national dance champions two years in a row!

We run different extra curricular dance clubs over the year and also provide the children with the opportunity to take part in dance shows such as ‘Time to Dance’ at the Pavilion Theatre in Worthing and ‘Simply Dance’ with Worthing High School.

These are excellent opportunities for the children to experience dancing on a stage that is regularly used for professional productions and is a real highlight in the school year.

A testament to the impact of this provision for dance is that a number of children return for years after they have left TAB Junior to support with clubs in school and come along to events.

Dance - Extra Curricular

Formula Goblin Go-Kart Club

Formula Goblin Club gives year 6 children the opportunity to build and compete with their very own functioning and drivable electric go-karts.

The karts are assembled from kit-form, where the children split off into various teams to build the chassis, axles, steering mechanism and electrical system. The build introduces children to basic mechanics and, on completion, they have the opportunity to train and compete against other schools from across the country.

The ‘TABinators’ (as the go-karts have been aptly named) may be frequently seen jetting about the school grounds as the children practise and train themselves up for competitions.

Below are some photos of the building process and some of the events we have competed in.

Formula Goblin

Race Report - HMS Excellent, Portsmouth

At our first session of the Formula Goblin Club, Abi P, Louie, Gus, Samuel, Sam and I saw only the chassis of the go-kart built and we carried on the building process from there, in order to have built the TABinator (and have had a few practice drives each) in time for our first competition at the Portsmouth naval base. We all, including Mr Watson, thoroughly enjoyed building and test-driving the Goblin. The week before our first competition in Portsmouth, we had achieved our goal and had completely finished the go-kart.

When we had all arrived at our first competition, we made our final checks of the Goblin: we greased the bearings and, making sure which race was first, slightly let down the tyres for the slalom so that they would have better grip. We pumped them up again for the drag races after we had finished the slalom.

In the slalom, Louie went first, but accidentally missed all the gates, giving him a minute’s penalty, as he went around the wrong cone to begin with. However, we were all proud of him for doing his best; we still had five turns at the slalom and they only take your best score - which Louie got in his second race anyway! After the slalom, we went on to the drag race. We won the majority of our races, and got some fast times; we were all pleased with our performance (Abi P especially as she got the fastest time for our school).

After lunch, we took part in the circuit race, which was the last event. In the circuit race there are three rounds: the heats, the semi-finals and the finals. We all got to vote for who we thought the fastest driver was, so that they could compete in the circuit race - we chose Louie. We were the first team ready for our heat, so got the first pick out of three cards that had the numbers of the lanes on them turned upside-down. Our team picked out the number two, which was the middle lane. We all cheered as loud as we could for him and Louie came in a close second, which meant we didn’t get to move on to the semi-finals, but the Goblin that we came second to was eventually the winner of the entire circuit race, so at least we knew we came second to the best in that race! Sadly, we didn’t win any trophies, but we all had lots of fun and that’s what matters. For our next race in April, we will be practising to get faster and hopefully next time we will bring back some trophies!

By Abi, 6EE

Learning an instrument

Learning an instrument is a fun, social activity that we encourage as many children as possible at TAB to be involved in. It can help children to gain confidence, express themselves, gain a new skill and improves memory to help children across their school curriculum. Playing an instrument can also have an incredibly positive impact on children’s mental health. Research has shown that children who play a musical instrument have reduced stress and anxiety, reduced depression and increased self-esteem.

“Not only do you learn a new skill but it opens a part of you that you might not have known before.” Aiofe

“If you learn an instrument it opens up more opportunities.” Erin

“It’s something you can be proud of and show other people.” Lexie

“It’s exciting to learn something and then show your friends.” Eden

“You can express yourself with music.” Molly

“You can learn new songs.” Tia

“If you’re bored it gives you a good thing to do.” Emily

TAB Wheels UP! & Scooter Training

Cycling is a life skill and learning to ride a bike is a rite of passage. Our TAB Wheels Up! programme run by TAB qualified cycle instructors supports children's skills, confidence, and cycling ability through a range of bespoke activities which are adapted to each child’s riding ability.

During the programme TAB Wheels Up! instructors demonstrate how to maintain your bike by checking brakes, steering, handlebars, saddle height, tyre pressure and gears.

Pupils learn the importance of wearing high-visibility clothing and how to check if their helmet fits correctly.

Through our activities, children have the opportunity to learn and develop their cycling ability by completing games where they learn how to look over their shoulder, practice hand signs and develop awareness of speed, stopping distances and bike control.

Pupils complete our obstacle track which teaches them how to control their bikes when using ramps, snaking between poles, maneuvering around objects and the importance of allowing distance between each rider.

TAB Wheels Up! instructors take pupils onto our school roads where they learn about road skills, observation, hazard awareness and perception of risk.

Pupils will complete maneuvers on the road by making left and right-hand turns
Complete U-turns
Learn how to communicate with other road users using hand signs.
Look over their shoulder to assess if the road is clear
Test brakes and learn why we should cover brakes with our hands

Riding a bike or scooter to school can improve both physical and mental well-being as well as being a great form of transport, it's also good news for the environment and helps reduce traffic and carbon emissions.

Scooter training

Children undertake a 30 minute session on the school grounds where they learn the key skills of scooting to school safely such as high visibility clothing, respecting pedestrians, safe pavement usage, crossing the road, safe stopping distance, road awareness and scooter control.

Eco-Schools

Following a rigorous application and assessment process we are pleased to announce that Thomas A Becket Junior School is an Eco Schools’ Green Flag 2024-2025 award holder. Through our continued 'green work' within school and the community we have held this award since 2009, with our application being reviewed every year.

To achieve this award we had to be working on the Eco Schools Framework, by building ‘greenness’ into both the day-to-day life of the school and the children's learning, as well as supporting other schools and organisations to become 'greener' themselves.

Mrs Michelle Mayes, our Eco and Forest School Lead, always welcomes support and ideas for the 'green' work that we do. If you would like to be involved in our work, or have ideas to offer, please contact the school office.

E.Y.E Eco Summit

Some pupils from our year 3 Eco Committee attend the Eco Summit at Shoreham Academy. We were joined by other local schools and had the opportunity to participate in three sustainability workshops.

The committee particularly enjoyed drawing and creating pieces of artwork where they had to link nature to the human body.

We all came back to school feeling very inspired by what we had learnt.

Grey Partridge Eggs

As part of year 4's topic about endangered animals we are hosting some Grey Partridge eggs. Grey Partridge numbers have declined to such an extent that they are now extinct in some areas. When the birds leave the school they will be reared on the farm until they are ready to be released back into the wild.

Follow this link to see our grey partridge eggs being released into the wild alongside their friends.

Ducklings

Our ducklings have now hatched and this has brought huge eggcitment to the school day! The children have all enjoyed learning about the hatching process over the past few days. Over the next week each class will have the opportunity to spend time with the ducklings and learn more about life cycles and the biology of how eggs grow into ducks.

Sea Safety Assembly 2024

We were very lucky to have a visit from Michelle Cannon, Coastal Warden for Adur and Worthing Council in our assemblies last week. The assemblies covered how to stay safe at the beach including:

swimming between the groynes and not too far out away from the shore,
wearing sturdy footwear when rock pooling,
wearing a buoyancy aid if paddleboarding (grown ups too!),
if you use an inflatable to make sure you tie a rope to it and a grown up holds on to it,
scoot in a straight line along the prom and
use sun cream and wear a sunhat.

School Travel Plan

We are pleased to announce that, after reviewing our Travel plan actions and achievements, WSCC have awarded us the Bronze National Travel Award. We will continue to promote safe travel to school by working with the children, parents/carers, Governors, residents and travel representatives.

School Streets Scheme

We are pleased to announce that the School Streets Scheme is still in place and running through the school terms. The aim of the scheme is to ensure safer roads around the school making a safer and healthier environment for our children and their parents/carers to walk to school in. This scheme means that during the term time Glebeside Avenue and Glebeside Close are restricted access between 8:00-9:00am and 2:30pm-3:30pm meaning parents/carers are not permitted to be driving into these roads even to just drop off or pick up.

Parent's Parking Promise

We ask our parents to join our parent parking promise when their children join TAB Junior. As part of the promise parents agree to

protect the safety of the children at our school by being a considerate driver
try to use their car as little as possible for school journeys
Park and Stride where possible
park considerately - not causing an obstruction to other road users or pedestrians by parking in front of residents driveways or on the pavement.

Air Quality Assembly and Workshops

Paul from Sustrans visited and held an assembly with Y5 to talk about air pollution. We learnt about what can cause air pollution and what we can do to reduce air quality in our local community.

After the assembly, Paul held two workshops and the children learnt how lichen on trees can indicate the quality of our air by the colour. We also installed an air quality monitor at the front of the school and data will be sent back to WSCC.

You can help us to reduce air pollution by traveling to school sustainability by walking, scooting, cycling, or using public transport and ensuring your car engine is turned off if you need to park on local roads.

Be Bright Be Seen Day

As part of our Road Safety Week, the children all came to school wearing a bright accessory to show how much more visible it makes them when its dark.

Eco 'Name A Lorry' Competition

Thank you to AD Fuels who asked our children to name 4 of their new lorries.

We had lots of wonderful entries and once again it was very hard for them to choose.

Well done to Anita in 4KR with Sustaina Billy, Charlie in 4TB with Greta Truckberg, Lottie in 5EM with Lightening McGreen, Tilda in 6PH with Renewable Ron and Ozone Ollie, Jude in 4CF with Gassy Gus.

Hedgehogs

The children enjoyed a visit from some hedgehogs. They asked lots of questions and found out all about the hedgehogs lifestyle.

Walk to School Week 2023

It was lovely to see all the children wearing shoes that made their feet happy to celebrate Walk to School week and our School Street scheme.

Congratulations to 3PH, 4TR, 5AH & 6SH for completing their hands up travel survey and being the most sustainable class in their year group.

Recycling at TAB

There are many ways you can recycle your used and unwanted items at TAB.

Clothes

Our clothes recycling bank is situated near the main entrance. We are able to collect the following items for our clothes bank which helps raise funds for school projects.

We can collect: Clean dry clothing, curtains, household fabrics, bed linen, towels, shoes, handbags etc. Medium size tied bags preferred, with shoes in separate bags.

We cannot collect: Duvets, pillows, cushions, off-cut material, rugs / carpet, wet or soiled clothing and material.

Batteries

All used batteries can be placed in our battery bank situated in the corridor by the fish tank.